Albert G. Wheeler House

“The Wheeler House, 970 W. Sheridan Rd. In 1909, Chicago business magnate Albert G. Wheeler built what was considered one of the grandest Chicago houses of its time.”

“Wheeler owned the house until 1916, when he sold it to Albert M. Johnson, the president of the National Life Insurance Company. Wheeler died in 1917. The house was later acquired by Mundelein College; it now is owned by Loyola University.”

“(built 1898) in the Kenwood Chicago Landmark District. Zimmerman opened his own practice in 1898, taking offices in Steinway Hall at 64 E. Van Buren St., a piano showroom-office building famous among architectural historians as housing such progressive architects as Frank Lloyd Wright, Dwight Perkins, Pond and Pond, and Robert Spencer.”

“The building's original owner, Adolf Schmidt, was a founding partner in the Columbian Colortype Company, a Chicago printing company that was a pioneer in color process printing. The house was later acquired by Mundelein College, a Roman Catholic women's college, and used as the President's House.”

“Two of the houses—the Downey and Gunder Houses—retain their historic matching coach houses. The buildings are finely crafted in terms of brick, stone, decorative metal and tile, and they possess beautifully-detailed ornament in the Prairie and Classical styles.”

“The house's rear elevation faces Lake Michigan and has similar use of materials. The Schmidt House's ornament combines both foliate and geometric ornament in a manner typical of the "motif-rhythm" theory favored by the building's architect, George W. Maher.”

“The building has restrained Classical-style ornament on its porch piers and as part of the front entrance, windows and dormers. Porch piers have floral and egg-and-dart moldings, as does a small square second-floor window set squarely in the front elevation.”

“Dormers are ornamented with acanthus leaves and rosettes. The house retains its historic coach house, built of similar tan Roman brick and with broad overhanging eaves with coffering.”

“One surviving free-standing light fixture, similar to those flanking the house's front entrance, is located on the north side of the coach house. The Gunder House is designed in a sparely-detailed variation on the Classical Revival architectural style with ornament based on Italian Renaissance precedents.”

“There is similar ornament atop thin colonettes dividing second-floor windows, squared “capitals” atop building piers, and detailing around the building's entrances, including paired columns that ornament an arcade for the highly recessed front entrance.”

“In 1906, Chicago building contractor Joseph Downey commissioned a new house from architect William Carbys Zimmerman. A building permit was issued for the house on April 25 of that year.”